That's the way Crown prosecutor Bill Wister described Sarah Lynn Sullivan's life when the infant's father was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with her death.
"It is fair to say that Sarah Lynn Sullivan - in her short life - I don't know how to describe it any other way than (to say it was) a tortured life," Wister said in a Woodstock courtroom during a September sentencing hearing. "She spent 34 days as a victim of child abuse."
The Plaster Rock-area infant is one of five New Brunswick children who have died in New Brunswick in the last 18 months. The cases involve alleged abuse, neglect, murder-suicide and drownings.
Officials don't know everything that happened during Sullivan's short life. But some details became clear during the September sentencing hearing when the facts of the case were presented.
For example, on Aug. 20, 2004, she was placed on Clifford Allen Sullivan's lap. The 22-year-old father was repairing a webcam in a bedroom shared with his former girlfriend and the child's mother, 17-year-old Line Parent.
When the undiapered baby defecated on his lap, the father told police his "instinctive" response was to throw the baby three to four feet across the room, in the direction of the couple's bed, the sentencing hearing was told.
Dr. Michael Pollanen, an expert forensic pathologist from Toronto, told the sentencing hearing his autopsy of Sullivan's body also revealed evidence of prior injuries "classically" associated with child abuse.
There were small bruises dotting her head and face, along with an old head injury that had started to heal. There were five growth plate fractures - an area in infants that eventually turns to bone - including breaks in her ankle and two factures near her knees.
"In my view the acute (head) injuries may very well relate to a single isolated incident but that does not encompass the full spectrum of injuries suffered by this infant," the pathologist told the court. "This infant showed signs of chronic physical child abuse."
An extensive police investigation was unable to pinpoint who was responsible for these prior injuries. No charges were laid in connection with Pollanen's findings.
Clifford Allen Sullivan pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death and was sentenced to three years in jail. He will serve 10 months in prison after spending 13 months in custody waiting for his hearing.
Between April 2004 and October 2005, five children have died in alleged cases of abuse, neglect, murder-suicide and mysterious drownings in this province.
Juli-Anna St. Peter, a dark-haired toddler from Canterbury, died in hospital in April 2004. The toddler's mother Anna Marie Mooers and her former commonlaw partner Curtis Brent Hathaway, both 26, have been charged with criminal negligence causing death, for failure to provide medical assistance. The two-year-old has been described as a "pretty little thing" by her next door neighbour. Police have not released what led to the child's death.
Sarah Lynn Sullivan was 34 days old when she died in hospital in August 2004. She had suffered head injuries after being tossed three to four feet across a bedroom.
Davin Riley Hannigan, four-years-old, died in April 2005 in what police are calling a suspected murder-suicide. The little boy, who ended every conversation with "See ya later, Alligator," was found in medical distress in a hotel room in Moncton. His mother, Treena Hannigan, 33, fell through an open window of the same room. Police found a suicide note inside the hotel room. They are still awaiting an autopsy result to determine whether the boy was drugged.
Mitchell Crewe, 12, and Ryleigh Squires, 8, drowned October 2005. The family's van plunged off a wharf near Bathurst into the Chaleur Bay. The van had been driven through a wooden barricade at the end of the wharf. Michele Squires, their mother, also drowned. Police haven't ruled out the possibility of murder-suicide after finding no mechanical problems with the van.
He has been urging the provincial government to hire a full-time child and youth advocate. Richard offered to take over the post on a temporary basis, but he was turned down.
"You can't help but be moved and disheartened as you read about some of these cases and I suppose my reaction is no different than anybody else's would be," he said. "Maybe there is not anyway possible to avoid all deaths, but certainly if we can avoid one or two or three, then we should be doing something."
"I think we have been very slow to react to an extremely serious issue," he said. "Any child death under suspicious circumstances that comes as a result of neglect, under nourishment, or abuse has to be a major concern for any society including New Brunswick society."
The former Liberal cabinet minister remembers when New Brunswick went through an agonizing process of fingerpointing in the 1990s after child tragedies led to serious questions about the province's ability to protect vulnerable children.
John Ryan Turner of Miramichi, Courtney Grimmer of Fredericton, and Jacqueline Brewer of Saint John died in the 1990s. Their cases garnered a lot of media attention that led to widespread calls for action from government officials.
Some people have been lobbying for a child and youth advocate for more than a decade - the idea was first recommended in 1998 by the child death review committee.
A private members bill, which was introduced by Liberal Leader Shawn Graham and passed in the legislature, would have created a child and youth advocate office by April 2005. The deadline has passed and no one has been hired.
Meanwhile, a report examining the child welfare system advocated 177 more social workers be hired in 2000, but at last count only new 73 positions have been filled.
Suzanne McKenna, executive director of the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers, said little has been accomplished to reduce the workload of social workers since the 2000 Children Come First Report was released.
In fact, a new government computer system is forcing social workers to spend more time away from their clients filling out mandatory paperwork, she said.
"The work overload in that department in terms of the social workers is absolutely crazy," McKenna said. "Our members are telling us things certainly haven't improved and in fact from what we are hearing, things have gotten worse."
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